


Sneaky, Soaring Snake

by alexspacesout



Series: Brace Yourself- Klance AU [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, Cute, Dancer!Keith, Fire and Ice, Fluff, Flying, M/M, Silk - Freeform, aerialacrobat!lance, brace yourself au, klance, red and blue - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-06-05 07:36:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15165788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexspacesout/pseuds/alexspacesout
Summary: Keith slips into the studio after hours hoping that nobody would notice him practicing on the silks. Well, it just so happens that this sneaky little snake isn't so alone after all.





	Sneaky, Soaring Snake

Keith scowls as his earbud swings out of his ear for the fourth time in a minute. Balancing his small bowl of microwaved mac and cheese in one arm, Keith nabs the earbud and stuffs it back in. The silence of the gym is once again replaced with the gentle bass-y thuds of his music.

Keith takes another bite of the mac and cheese, humming with content for his comfort food. Is it good for you? Absolutely not. Will that stop Keith? Never. 

He gives a small flick of his hand to Coran as he passes by the front desk. Coran gives a little wave as he tosses on his hoodie to head out. He taps a finger to his temple, a reminder to Keith to lock the place up once he leaves. Keith gives a stiff nod as he shovels another spoonful of cheesy goodness into his mouth. 

The lights begin to click off and Keith hurries the rest of the way to his room. He glances once at the darkness and odd looming shapes of the machines before backing his way into the room and kicking the door shut. Keith stoops his head to take one last nibble of his mac and cheese before placing it down beside the speaker. The lights flicker on with a tiny click and Keith’s heart swells with familiar warmth. Just him and his room, no one to walk in and judge him. 

Keith kicks his sneakers off and pitter patters his way over to the tiny storage closet at the back of the room. The white door glides open and the light floods a red piece of silk. Brand new, the tag still on. The corner of Keith’s mouth quirks up as he slings it over his shoulder and slides the door shut. 

Turning on his heels, Keith patters his way back to the center of the room. The silk falls off his arm easily, pooling at his feet as he rips the tag away. He does a quick look over on the silk to ensure there are no tears or holes that could be sudden death. Satisfied, Keith backs himself against the mirrors and heaves the silk up and over his head.

A tiny huff- “ _yeet.”_ And the silk is over. The ring of plastic tied around the silk helps it fall back to Earth so that Keith can retrieve the other end. He carefully weaves the silk through the ring and pulls on it until the knot is firmly stuck around the pole 20 feet above.

Wanting to give it a good test, Keith latches onto the silk and yanks it down with all of his body weight. Barely any give, good. The slight stretchiness of the silk allows Keith to shift himself easily without getting snagged in stiff fabric. However, this silk is not as loose as Keith is used to due to the sheer newness of it. He’s going to have to take some time to work out his brand new gear. Really, how could he  _not_ get a red silk? It suits him better than the studio’s mint green ones.

Keith lets the silk dangle freely as he returns to the speaker. With a few quick bites, the mac and cheese is gone and his tummy rumbles happily. He twists his phone out of his back pocket and steps out of his sweatpants as he checks his notifications.

 _Oh? A text from an unknown number?_ Keith eagerly opens it up, curious to see what stranger would text him at midnight. 

**Hey there cutie, it’s Lance ;)**

_Abort aboRT ABORT-_

****_Oh, hey Lance. What’s up?_

Keith lets out a shuddery breath. The warmth and serenity from moments before is smashed in only a few seconds. He’s suddenly hyper aware of why he's at the gym so late. 

_You’ve gotta impress Lance. How are you gonna do that? You’re gonna practice flying until you don’t face plant every ten seconds. So let’s go gO GO!_

**-go?**

Keith blinks twice, then rereads the text to get his bearings.

**How did your appointment go?**

_What?_

**Ya know, for your knee?**

_Oh! It went okay, I’m still stuck using the same braces. Whoopie!_

Keith slips his finger under the top edge of the brace, tracing his grooves unconsciously. 

**Aw man, that sucks. I’m lucky enough to have found my perfect brace.**

Keith wiggles the sleeve up his leg a bit, trying to remove some of the bite of the metal.

**I’m sure you’ll find the right one.**

_Right one? I already found the right one…_ cue intense blushing… _oh, braces, not faces, right right…_

_Yeah._

Is that it? Did the conversation just end? 

**So watchu up to?**

Thank goodness, it’s not over. Keith didn’t screw up.

_Just chilling at the gym, I’m hoping to work on-_

Backspace! Backspace! Backspace!

_Not much, you?_

Silence. Five minutes pass and Keith gets nothing. The text says read but Lance has yet to respond. Keith gives it another two before feeling defeat. With a soft grumble, Keith swipes to his music and puts on a generic lo-fi beat. His phone clicks off with a sort of finality and Keith eases his way out of Lance world into dance world.

He finds himself strutting to the beat, his hips swaying as he ties his hair back with a loose ribbon. It’s his fault for forgetting a hair tie.

The silk seems to shift under Keith’s gaze, catching the light and diffusing it back to him. Keith drifts closer, entangling his fingers in the glowing silk to get a feel for it. He circles it, eyeing the beast, hoping to tame it into cooperation. As the beat escalates, Keith leaps into action and wraps his hands in the silk.

The contraption sways side to side as Keith works his feet into the fabric. With a steady stance, Keith tilts his head back and looks at the vast expanse of red above him. Rather than feeling deterred, Keith takes it as a challenge and begins to climb with vigor. 

Every few seconds, he’s held up purely by his arms as his feet adjust to find a new grip. Floating, flying, free. It’s not long before Keith finds himself at the very top of the silk, the fabric flowing freely beneath him with every breath.

Keith exhales slowly with a slight chuckle. _Wow, this is high up._

It takes Keith some time to find it in himself to move again. He thinks back to Lance’s class, his flexing arms and flying legs, somehow finding purchase in a slippery landscape. He remembers one trick in particular, where he had kept his foot tied and grasped the silk tightly as he leaned forward and pointed his other foot outward.

With a shaky breath, Keith mimics the tiny Lance dancing through his head, moving in almost perfect unison. Once he feels steady, Keith lowers his gaze and finds himself hanging in nothingness. The silk flaps a few feet behind him, but directly below his gaze is just a hard floor. Fifteen feet below. 

Well shit.

Keith’s heart begins to pound as he pulls himself back toward the silk. His arm muscles tremble with the effort and he scrambles to wrap his other foot up to give his arms a rest. With his feet wrapped, he’s able to relax and finally acknowledge the fact that he had actually…flown.

The terrified adrenaline that had been coursing through his veins is slowly replaced with ecstatic excitement. He did it! And hell if he's gonna stop there

Keith barreled on forward. With growing excitement, Keith did trick after trick, even a few drops, becoming more confident with each one. After about an hour Keith couldn’t tell where he ended and the silk began. He finally realized what had entranced Lance so much about aerial acrobatics- it was freeing. It was soaring above your problems and the rest of the world.

Keith decides to attempt one of the more dramatic drops, one that would take him about 2/3 of the way down the silk before he stopped in an almost-split. Even Lance had wobbled a bit while landing the final pose. 

As Keith climbs his way back to the top of the silk, he doesn’t notice movement in the corner of the room as he’s far too focused on the task at hand. He replays Lance over and over in his head- _wrap right, wrap left 3 times, arm goes through there and grips firmly there- check to make sure…_

Lance eases himself down onto the floor, curling himself into as tiny a ball as possible. Keith couldn’t know he was here or it might distract him. All Lance wanted to do was continue watching Keith slice through the air, copying his moves almost exactly. He was just getting stiff from standing at the door watching so he decided to sit.

Keith’s low grunts mingle with the gentle swishing of the silk flowing with his movements. Lance takes a moment to check the time on his phone. He notices that he had accidentally turned on airplane mode while using his flashlight in the locker room. It’s not the first time he’s accidentally hung around too late…

But it is the first time he’s gotten a show out of it. 

As Lance turns his airplane mode back on, he hears a tiny _fwoosh_ as a text sends off. With a quirk of his eyebrow, Lance finds his messages and notices his text had just sent to Keith.

**I’m wrapping it up at the gym, had a long class tonight. I missed seeing you :(**

A loud and sudden exhale snaps Lance back to attention, his eyes flying to Keith’s figure far above his head. He watches his precise twists and movements, noting he’s following a similar routine to his-

_Butterfly drop. Death drop. Call it what you will. One thing’s for sure, Keith must be crazy._

Lance can’t find the courage to speak up, instead he watches in stunned silence as Keith whispers his countdown.

_3…2…1…_

_FWOOSH_

Keith flies down the silk, the ground coming up to meet him fast. He can’t help but close his eyes, bracing for a horrible impact. _Why didn’t I use a mat?!_

Then, nothing. The air stops flying past his head. His hair falls down around his face as the ribbon tying it back flutters to the ground…2 feet away. 

Keith is silent for a moment, then he begins to shake with nervous laughter. _I didn’t die! I didn’t die, omg, I didn’t die!!!_

Lance, meanwhile, is clutching his heart in silence. _It’s okay, he didn’t die, he didn’t die. He almost did but he didn’t die._

Keith hangs out for a bit, letting the momentum from falling swing him around a bit. Lance watches him circle, realizing it wouldn’t be long before Keith could spot him. With one last glance at the beautiful boy, Lance slips out the door just as Keith is beginning to swing around.

A shadow catches Keith’s eye, but it’s gone before he can determine what it was. He gazes at the corner, something about it feeling different than before. It seemed like that corner held a tiny secret, the air now a bit heavier and cooler. Keith shrugs it off and begins to detangle himself, easing his body to the chilled wood below to lay back and catch his breath.

The city lights twinkle through the window and Keith lulls into the gentle hum of life outside. A shaft of light suddenly cuts through the dull grey and bounces off the brick bakery next door. _That must be coming from the gym parking lot…but who would be here this late?_

As if in response to his question, he hears his phone buzz near the speaker and the music pauses. Grumbling like a grumpy grandpa, Keith heaves himself up off the floor and thunks his way over to the speaker. _Unknown number._

 _“_ Great. Another spam caller. No _thank_ you… _”_ Keith mutters to himself and hangs up the call. _One new text froooom…Lance?_

**I’m wrapping it up at the gym, had a long class tonight. I missed seeing you :(**

Well, there’s a lot to unpack here. 

1\. He missed me? In his class? He even noticed me in the first place? Wowie wow wow.  
2\. He had a class??? Oooohhh... He doesn’t normally have class on Wednesday, it just moved that one day. So it’s on Fridays then?  
3\. He’s “wrapping it up at the gym”…at 12:30…he was  _HERE?!?!_

“Lance was HERE?!?” Keith drops his phone in disbelief. This whole time he thought he had the gym to himself. No one to bug him, no one to judge him. But Lance was there? The whole time?! 

“Oh my god what if he sAW ME.” Keith flops onto his back, his heart flailing in his chest, undecided between excitement and distress. _Did he like what I was doing? What if I was doing it all wrong? He was most definitely judging me…but he might not have seen me at all. No need to panic._

 

Lance keeps thinking back to Keith falling, his hair flying in the wind, the pure weightlessness. Lance may be a smooth swan, gliding through the silk but Keith is an entirely different animal. He’s a snake, flying precisely through the flaming red with a reared head and fiery intent. The fire to warm his ice.

 


End file.
